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Baseball excitement is high in town as Cards GM Walt Jocketty finally pulled the trigger on the long-rumored trade for Mark McGwire.
Unless Blake Stein, a 6-7 righthander, one of the three hurlers dealt to Oakland in the deal, turns out to be the next JR Richard, it's hard to criticize Jocketty's attempt to salvage the current season.
The Cardinals are delighted with the progress of last year's first-round selection, Braden Looper.
In fact, some in the organization believe that Looper may be ready to step in as the team's closer as early as next season, making TJ Mathews more-or-less expendable.
Eric Ludwick, the third pitcher dealt to Oakland?
He was unimpressive in the March '97 spring training games (in a team-high 12 appearances), had yet to find a niche with the Cardinals organization...and will turn 26 this December.
But the comparisons between the Cards acquisition of McGwire and the Blues recent ill-fated trade for Wayne Gretzky are many.
This bureau always thought that the Gretzky trade was a sign that the Jack Quinn-Mike Keenan Blues management team was running scared in the spring of 1996, and was looking for a dose of magic dust to solve a multitude of Blues problems.
In other words, the trade for Gretzky was equivalent to pushing the panic button at Kiel.
Is there a slight hint of that same feeling at 250 Stadium Plaza?
Is the trade for McGwire a sign of major changes at the ballpark?
For over a year, more than occasional rumors have swirled around the future of Cardinals president Mark Lamping, who, in the eyes of some, has adopted a lower organizational profile in the past few months.
Jocketty's three-year contract to serve as GM expires prior to the start of the '98 season.
La Russa's two-year deal to manage the Cardinals expires at the end of the current season. His original contract does in fact contain an option year...but it's La Russa's option, not the club's.
McGwire, of course, has only two months remaining before becoming eligible for free-agency.
As a five-and-ten guy (five years with the same team and ten years of big-league service), McGwire had to approve any change in his address.
McGwire obviously chose St. Louis because of La Russa's presence here.
Two years ago, La Russa came on board as the Cardinals manager...and his past relationship with Jocketty played an important, if not critical, role in his decision.
Lamping's first significant moves as president of the team (several months prior to A-B's sale of the team to a local group headed by William DeWitt)?
He fired Dal Maxvill, and replaced Maxie with Jocketty.
So far, the Lamping-Jocketty-La Russa marraige has worked, producing a divisional championship in 1996.
But, with--
*several thousand seats remaining empty for most home games
*the team losing contact with the first-place Astros, in baseball's
weakest division
*a whole series of on-the-field personnel changes on tap prior
to the 1998 season...a handful of decisions regarding big-money
contracts (both to players that the Cardinals want...and to some
that they do not)...
it wouldn't be hard to envision a feeling of desperation in and around the Cards front office.
But perhaps the best evidence that Jocketty remains committed to the team's long-term future was his apparent insistence to refrain from approving the trade for McGwire until Oakland GM Sandy Alderson dropped his demands that one or two of the Cards top-shelf prospects (C Eli Marrero and/or P Manny Aybar) be included in the deal.
Apparently, Jocketty could have had McGwire in time for the recent Astros series if he had sweetened the deal.
But Jocketty waited...and refused to mortgage his team's future on two months worth of Mark McGwire's services.
Say what you want...but one thing remains clear.
The Cards management team, with GM Walt Jocketty in charge, remains patient.
That patience is a sign that Jocketty, at least, has yet to panic.
To paraphrase former vice-presidential candidate Lloyd Bentsen:
I've met Walt Jocketty. And I've met Mike Keenan. Walt Jocketty is no Mike Keenan.
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